If you’ve ever felt stuck in a cycle of collecting continuing education credits without seeing real change in your clinical confidence or referral flow, you’re not alone. CEUs and certifications often get talked about interchangeably, but they serve completely different purposes in your career as a pediatric feeding or myofunctional therapist.
One keeps your license active. The other transforms how you practice.
After years of creating both CEU courses and certification programs, I’ve seen firsthand what actually moves the needle for therapists who want to grow their skills and their impact. Here’s what you need to know.
One keeps your license active. The other transforms how you practice.
After years of creating both CEU courses and certification programs, I’ve seen firsthand what actually moves the needle for therapists who want to grow their skills and their impact. Here’s what you need to know.
CEUs: Meeting Requirements, Not Building Expertise
Continuing Education Units exist for one primary reason: license maintenance. They’re the hours you log to satisfy ASHA or AOTA renewal requirements every three years. You watch recorded modules, complete a quiz, and earn your credits.
CEU courses like Feed The Peds® or The Myo Method® provide valuable content on screening red flags, airway assessment, and clinical approaches. They’re genuinely helpful for filling knowledge gaps or refreshing skills you haven’t used in a while.
But here’s the thing: CEUs are inherently passive learning experiences. You consume information, answer questions, and receive documentation that you completed the course. What they don’t do is verify that you can actually apply what you learned with real patients in real clinical situations.
Many therapists end up chasing CEUs like a checklist, accumulating certificates that sit in a folder while their confidence with complex feeding cases remains unchanged. You’ve invested time and money, but when a parent asks if you can help their child who’s gagging on all textures, you still feel uncertain.
That’s because CEUs were never designed to prove competency. They’re designed to prove participation.
Certification: Demonstrating Competence Through Application
Certifications like the CPFT™ (Certified Pediatric Feeding Therapist™) or CMT® (Certified Myofunctional Therapist®) work differently. They require you to demonstrate that you can do the work, not just understand the concepts.
The CPFT™ certification process includes 82+ hours of core coursework, but that’s just the foundation. From there, you complete case studies, present your clinical reasoning to mentors, and undergo blind grading on your assessment and treatment approaches. You have to prove you can evaluate a toddler’s jaw instability during feeding, develop functional goals that make sense for the family’s life, and coach parents through mealtime routines that actually stick.
This isn’t about jumping through hoops. It’s about developing clinical maturity.
Why Certification Changes Your Practice
Referral credibility: When physicians and specialists look for someone to refer complex feeding cases to, they’re searching for specific qualifications. “CPFT” or “CMT” after your name signals proven competency in ways that a list of CEU courses simply can’t. Medical providers want to know you’ve been evaluated by experienced clinicians who verified your skills.
Clinical confidence: Certification shifts your internal narrative from “Am I doing this right?” to “Here’s my clinical reasoning, and I can defend it.” That confidence changes everything about how you show up in sessions, collaborate with teams, and communicate with families.
Practice growth: Graduates consistently report increases in referrals from ENTs, GI specialists, and pediatricians after earning their certification. One CPFT™ graduate shared that she added $20,000 to her annual revenue within the first year simply from the spike in medical referrals.
Long-term credential: Unlike one-time CEU courses, certifications like CPFT™ are maintained credentials. You renew every three years with 15 continuing education hours in pediatric feeding and a renewal fee, keeping your expertise current and your credential active.
Two Different Tools for Two Different Goals
CEUs maintain your baseline license requirements. They’re necessary, and quality CEU courses absolutely have value in your ongoing education.
Certifications elevate your clinical practice. They prove to referring providers, families, and yourself that you have the competency to handle complex cases with confidence.
Think of it this way: CEUs are like oil changes for your car. Essential maintenance, but they don’t make you a better driver. Certification is like advanced driving training that transforms how you handle challenging conditions.
Your Path Forward
If you’re ready to move from collecting credits to building genuine expertise, Feed The Peds® is an excellent starting point. The course provides 4.05 ASHA and AOTA CEUs while preparing you for the clinical depth required in the CPFT™ certification process.
For myofunctional therapy, The Myo Method offers the same progression toward the CMT certification.
The Real Question
What are you actually building right now? A folder full of certificates, or a practice built on proven competency?
If you’re ready to stop chasing maintenance and start pursuing mastery, the CPFT™ certification gives you a clear path to transform your pediatric feeding practice. You’ll gain the clinical confidence, referral credibility, and expertise that actually change outcomes for the kids and families you serve.
Ready to become a Certified Pediatric Feeding Therapist? Learn more about the CPFT™ certification program here.
